


Arrival

by Hokuto



Category: Marathon (Video Games)
Genre: Alien Character(s), Community: fandomweekly, Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 05:23:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6182152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hokuto/pseuds/Hokuto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>F'tha learns of <em>Boomer</em>'s arrival at Lh'owon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arrival

The skies of home never grew truly dark. When the warm sun sank behind old ruins and ancient hills, the moons remained to reflect lost light, and when no moon shone, the billion close-born stars of the Core glittered without ceasing, brilliant against a thousand shades of soft, rich purple.

They glittered now, or so claimed the S'pht newly come with the garrison's reinforcements, who were stationed closer to the surface than F'tha. F'tha was slaved to a console deep in the garrison, regulating power relays and output; in four hours the slavers would send them to the upper levels and the sun would have stolen the place of the stars. In the many years F'tha had been used in this garrison, they had always worked underground during the night cycle.

_Such beauty we have never seen on the slavers' ships_ , whispered the new S'pht, and F'tha grasped with longing at the unit-connection, their words and their shared sensory input. _Our work is bitter, but we work under -_

Control circuitry kicked the connection out of primary awareness and dragged F'tha's attention back to the power network, dull scraping repetition of on-off-on-off-off-on-on-off-on-off-on-off-on. No stars, no night, no unit-feeling, only the pain of control and the burden of work.

Off-on-off-on-on-off-off-on-off-on-off-on-off-ALERT-ALERT-ALERT. ALERT CONDITIONED UNITS AGGREGATE UNITS WILLFUL UNITS ATTENTIVE UNITS ALERT. HOSTILE FORCES INBOUND. ALERT ALL UNITS ALERT.

The control circuitry clamped down, poison-burning, but F'tha stretched against the network chains, straining to reconnect fully to the unit-whole and their experiences. _Who attacks? Are you in danger?_ , though there was little F'tha could do from their position.

From Yr'nor panic, the sharp taste of fear-chemicals. From K'rcta and Yr'sah and Hr'ncta muted rage, deadly hostility channeled away from the slavers to new, unknown targets. From Lharro, wonder.

F'tha reached farther through the smothering control circuitry. _Lharro? What's happening? Are you injured?_

The connection strengthened, briefly overflowing the controls. _Aliens_ , Lharro said. _Aliens and their construct, and with them fly a free unit-whole..._

Yr'sah's fury flared, spiked into shock, and then their connection faded out with the same slow wonder that Lharro still sent. Through the unit-connection came fresh information, a renewed strength and nets of cunning and messages. New ways to resist the control circuitry, to impede the slavers, to increase the will of the unit-whole and improve their connections - and beyond that, something to direct their will. Something to strive for, long-lost and forgotten but possible to find once more...

The wonder spread through F'tha even as K'rcta's connection died with them, and Hr'ncta, and frightened Yr'nor. Lharro alone remained of the S'pht above, concealed in another section of the garrison; the slavers' control circuitry was already tightening to suffocate the flames of resistance, choking the connection down to the bare minimum for productivity, but Lharro managed to send one more pulse of data to F'tha. Points of light, bright and sharp, washing away darkness to bring out the colors of the arched sky.

_You will see the stars of home yourself_ , said Lharro. _And we will all be free._

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [fandomweekly](http://fandomweekly.dreamwidth.org/) "Minor Characters" challenge! It was a tough choice between F'tha and Re'eer, but the idea for F'tha came to me first... Sorry, Re'eer, I will write more of your tempestuous academic affair with Leela another time! Slightly tweaked from the fandomweekly version.


End file.
